Hill House hit by several recent early morning fires

University Police responded to reports of two fires in Hill House within two hours of each other early Saturday morning, University Police Lieutenant Susan Holmes said yesterday. Holmes said the fires caused little damage to the Walnut Street dormitory. In the first fire, an unknown person or persons detonated a smoke bomb in a fifth floor lounge on the southeast corner of the building at 3:14 a.m. Saturday. The Philadelphia Fire Department and the University's Department of Physical Plant responded to the fire. Engineering and College sophomore Matt Bixler said Hill House residents were awakened by the building's fire alarm and by upperclassmen who knocked on doors to expedite the evacuation procedure. Bixler said University Police kept Hill House residents outside the building on the south side of Walnut Street for approximately 15 to 20 minutes after the alarm sounded. The second fire broke out at 6:34 p.m. when a student using a stove on the second floor allowed an inflammable cloth to become ignited by the burners underneath it. The fire was extinguished in a joint effort by University Police and the Philadelphia Fire Department. Residents were again awakened by the fire alarm and by upperclassmen during the second fire, according to Bixler. Hill House Graduate Fellow Amanda Banks said there was also a fire in Hill House at 3:15 a.m., last Wednesday or Thursday morning. Banks said that incident occurred when a pile of clothes on top of a washing machine caught fire, apparently because of faulty electrical wiring. All of the alarms have occurred early in the morning. "The alarms tend to go off at that time, it seems," Banks said. "There have been three fires in the last four days, and they are real fires. They are based on stupidity and are definitely pranks, especially the last two," Wharton freshman Ira Koyner said. Koyner added, "Somebody should be investigating -- people should be asking questions." In an unrelated incident, Philadelphia Fire Rescue transported a student suffering from complications from having smoked marijuana to the emergency room at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania at 2:15 a.m. Saturday. The student, whose condition was marked by high blood pressure and an increased heart rate, was released from HUP early Saturday morning. In separate and unrelated incidents reported by University Police: · A female University student reported being threatened by a woman in the lobby of Chestnut Hall at 39th and Chestnut streets between 12:30 and 1 a.m. last Thursday morning. The student said the woman, who the student said seemed homeless, threatened to kill her. Police say they believe the actor's behavior was not entirely rational. · A female University student reported having been threatened by a male motorcycle rider on the 3800 block of Walnut Street at 6 p.m. last Thursday. The woman said the man followed her into the parking lot at 3809 Locust Walk after she had cut in front of him on Walnut Street. She said the man spit on her car and threatened her. · The owner of Roses Florist in Houston Hall said a worker he had fired earlier stole $400 worth of order forms and offered to return them for $200. University Police received the report at 6 p.m. last Thursday. The owner did not witness any theft and police found no order forms with the worker, who was subsequently warned and released. · University Police stopped a man carrying two cases of beer in Dietrich gardens, behind Steinberg-Dietrich Hall, at 3:51 a.m. yesterday. The man is wanted by the Philadelphia Police Department for a bench warrant. Police confiscated the beer. · An unknown person dropped a heavy object out of a window in High Rise East onto a 1986 Chevrolet, damaging its roof and breaking its windshield, at 4:27 a.m. yesterday. · An unknown person heaved a brick through the window of the Kappa Alpha Society fraternity house at 4:42 a.m. yesterday. · University Police received a report of a computer theft in the Richards Building at 10:47 a.m. Friday. A Toshiba personal computer was said to have been stolen between February 6 and 13.

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